The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-02-03
Farming In two States.

ernment, whether they come from the
Treasury Department, the Secretary of
States Office or the Department of Agri.
culture, are held in poor esteem by the
public generally. And yet, these vol
umes, great or small, are as full of valu.
able information as Kate Sanborn's
"Vanity and Insanity of Genius" is of
interesting and curious facts in the li7es
of men and women who, as literateurs,
have written their names high up in the
temple of fame.
Laying aside Kate Sauborn's bright
little volume, I took up the recently
issued report of the Department of agri-
culture for 1884. Thereupon, itoccurred
to me to institute comparison between
the years 1875 and 1884. AS shown in
results achieved and duly recorded.
Ihave not time to attempt this in q
methodical manner. I suspect that a
random presentation of notable facts
will be more acceptable to the Chronicle
than an array of figures, which the
average reader usually rejects as utterly
dry.
Our agricultural export trade is not
the insignificant thing it is universally
supposed TO be. Between the years 1926
and 1880, this class of exports averaged
something over fifty million dollars,
whereas, in 1874, the amount was in
creased 10 quite five hundred and fifty
million dollars, or seventy.nine per cent.
Of all our exports. During the period
first mentioned, cotton was lifty-6ve PEI
cent. of the whole; in "a, it wss thirty.
nine per cent. The exports Of bread.
stuffs in IA were worth six times as
much as those of cotton fifty years ago.
In 1875, the acreage in corn was in.
creased from forty one in 1874 to forty
five millions, and the yield per acre,
from 20.7 to 29.A bushels.
In 1884, the acreage in corn vas sew
enty million acres, an increase, in ten
yes ',of about thirty million acres. The
yielu per acre was 25.S bushels. The
annual average yield for ten years
(70'80) was I'll bushels per acre in the
entire country.
Georgia produced in. 1876, twenty
million bushels of corn; three million
wheat, four million oats, and twenty-five
thousand tons of hay. The value OF
these products, with the rye. barley,
potatoes and tobacco raised, WIS about
tHenty.seven million dollars.
In 'S4, Georgia increased her corn
product by eleven million bushels. She
held her own in wheat, added two and
one quarter million to her oat product,
but made three thousand tons less of hay,
Exclusive of cotton, her field crops
yielded thirty million dollars.
The average yield per acre wss much
lower than it should have been. This
means that our farmers give too little
attention to the preparation of the soil.
and are comparatively careless as to cul-
tiyation of crops they grow. This low
average means that scarcely any atten.
tion at all is paid the question of obtain.
ing the best seed or of substituting more
profitable crops.
There are no better grass lands in the
Union than can be found in Georgia
and South Carolina. Yet, We find that
these two States, according to the stats.
tics given, produce annually less than
fifty thousand tons of hay.
In 1875, South Carolina produced
something over nine million bushels Of
corn, seven hundred and fifty thousand
bushels Of wheat; oats, eight hundred
and fifty thousand bushels. These and
other products, exclusive of cotton, were
valued at twelve million dollars.
In 1884, South Carolina increased he,
corn yield three and one-half million
bushels; she doubled almost her wheat
crop; she increased her ont crop by two
million eight hundred thousand bushels.
and her hay crop went from twenty-five
thousand FIVE hundred tons to less than
four thousand tons. Exclusive of cotton.
her field crop for 'S4 were worth about
eight hundred thousand dollars more
than in rs.
The average yield per acre, in Georgia
and South Carolina was inexcusably
small, and tells, in trumpet tones, the
lack of that close personal attention to
the details of business which is essential
to success. These "facts and figures
clearly show that experimentation is
needed; that Old methods, under which
ten bushels of corn per acre are produced,
must give place to system of intensive
farming by which the average yield pei
acre may be brought up to twenty-five OF
thirty bushels.
The one crop system is steadily max
ing our farmers mere "bewers of wood
and drawers of water" when they ought
really to be, practically, "kinga and
princess" in this heaven blest section Of
ours. Note the extent of this impover.
ishing and destructive system.
In 'S4, Georgia had in corn, wheat,
rye, oats, barley, potatoes, hay and cot.
ton 7,O59,799 acres. Of these, 2,958,93O
acres, or more than one.third, were given
to cotton.
The same year, South Carolina planted
in cotton nearly one-half her entire acre
age; that is, of 9,SO2,22O given to corn,
oats, cotton, etc., 1,716,128 acres were
planted in cotton.
The average yield, as shown by the
reports before me, was less than half q
bale per acre in the two States.
1t may be urged that the figures sub
mitted are not an impartial statement of